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Use of Metaphor in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie In The Glass Menagerie, by Tennessee Williams, the glass menagerie is a clear and powerful metaphor for each of the four characters, Tom, Laura, Amanda, and the Gentleman Caller. It represents their lives, personality, emotions, and other important characteristics. Laura is the owner and caretaker of the glass menagerie. In her own little fantasy world, playing with the glass animals is how she escapes from the real world in order to get away from the realities and hardships she endures. Though she is crippled only to a very slight degree physically, her mind is very disabled on an emotional level. Over time, she has become very fragile, much like the glass, which shatters easily, as one of the animals lost its horn; she can lose control of herself. Laura is very weak and open to attack, unable to defend herself from the truths of life. The glass menagerie is an unmistakable metaphor in representing Laura’s physical and mental states. Amanda is also well characterized by the glass menagerie. The glass sits in a case, open for display and inspection for all. Amanda try’s to portray herself as a loving mother, doing everything she can for her children, and caring nothing for herself, when in fact, she is quite selfish and demanding. Amanda claims that she devotes her life to her children, and that she would do anything for them, but is very suspicious of Tom’s activities, and continually pressures Tom, trying to force him in finding a gentleman caller for Laura, believing that Laura is lonely and needs a companion, perhaps to get married. Like the glass, her schemes are very transparent, and people can see straight through them to the other side, where ... ... middle of paper ... ...Laura. If he had been what Amanda had wanted him to be, Laura would have become happy and so would have Amanda, and then Tom would have been able to go his own separate way, being freed of his duties to his mother and sister. However, as it turns out, the shelf seems to have broken, because the gentleman caller actually ignites the greatest fight of all between Tom and Amanda, and Laura is left shattered after she loses whatever she had left within her because the gentleman caller turned out to be a disappointment. Although the glass menagerie is meant as a direct metaphor for Laura, it also serves as a metaphor to the other characters in the play through various means. They are all interconnected in some way, depending on each other, and when things don’t turn out right, everything begins to fall into a downward spiral, with little or no hope for improvement.
The Glass Menagerie is a play about the character Tom trying to escape his living situation that traps him. He is doing to best to cope with his dependent, demanding mother Amanda and take care of his quiet sister Laura. Amanda and Laura solely depend on Tom’s income from his warehouse job, but Tom is desperately wanting to leave both his mother and sister to lead his own adventurous life. Laura is mainly embodied by her precious glass menagerie and Jim O’Connor’s nickname for her, “Blue Roses.” Her livelihood revolves around taking care of her glass animals and protecting them, and in doing so, she isolates herself from the normal world around her. In Tennessee William’s play The Glass Menagerie, symbolism is use to uncover the unearthly beauty and delicacy of Laura and to portray Tom’s need to escape from his oppressive responsibilities.
In Tennessee William's play, The Glass Menagerie, the character of Laura is like a fragile piece of glass. The play is based around a fragile family and their difficulties coping with life.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a loosely autobiographical memory play this is enriched with symbolism. The play itself is symbolic and parallels with much of Williams own unhappy family background. The symbolism used by the playwright is used to represent the desire to escape or to distinguish the difference between illusion and reality. Much of the symbolism used is specific to each character, but the most important symbol is Laura’s glass menagerie.
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams is a classic example of a story with its themes being expressed in the form of a heavy symbolism influence. Each member of the Wingfield family, including Amanda, Laura and Tom, has their individual internal and emotional struggles. These problems are represented with symbols that are strongly emphasized throughout the story as they relate to the family. It is apparent that Tom and Laura’s symbols are some of the most important. These symbols include the fire escape, the nickname “Blue Roses” given to Laura, and the unicorn figurine in Laura’s glass menagerie.
Another factor that was not controlled for was personality disorders. Given the limitations in the SIQ-JR’s ability to predict suicide attempts in males, it is important to look at all factors that could help increase the success and accuracy of suicide risk assessments. It is possible that knowledge of personality disorders among male participants would help detect suicidal ideation when these participants are less willing to report suicidal feelings.
Because the glass menagerie symbolizes more than one feature, its imagery can be considered both consistent and fluctuating. The consistent side of this portrayal is that the menagerie is a constant symbol of Laura’s personality.
Tennessee Williams's brilliant use of symbols adds life to the play. The title itself, The Glass Menagerie, reveals one of the most important symbols. Laura's collection of glass animals represents her fragile state. When Jim, the gentleman caller, breaks the horn off her favorite unicorn, this represents Laura's break from her unique innocence.
In Tennessee Williams' play, The Glass Menagerie, each character attempts to escape the real world by creating their own “reality”. Laura hides from the world by magnifying her illness. Tom convinces himself that his needs supersede the needs of his family. Amanda focuses almost exclusively on the past - when she saw herself as a desirable southern belle. Even Jim focus his hopes on recapturing his good old high school days. Each character transposes their difficult situations into shadows of the truth.
Moreover, mood disorder is correlated to the concept of suicide. Suicide is a wide-known concept and option that some individuals opt for, whether he or she is in a conscious or an unconscious state of mind. Normally, such a “permanent” treatment is sought when a person is in stress or depression, that they ultimately cannot handle the overload and/or have no hope in themselves. Typically, those who have a psychological disorder have a higher suicidal rate. Those who have suicida...
Ethical issues regarding the use of information technology are changing rapidly in our advancing modern society. Historically information technology had seen limited applications and impacts on society in general. More recently, however, this has been changing as information technology has become a part of nearly every business, and personal activity (Brooks, 2010). As a result, there are more opportunities than ever to engage with information technology in an unethical manner. Thus, it has become essential for businesses, and education systems to address the ethical concerns of information technology usage, and to develop a practical code of ethics to prevent, or at least mitigate, ethical issues and potential infractions.
Due to the combination of multiple factors in an individual, the act of suicide can happen (The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine). Over 90 percent of suicides are the result of a mental illness at the time of their death (Caruso). Most common among those mental illnesses is depression (Caruso). Although, some individuals seem to have a happy life, some are genetically susceptible to depression (Caruso). With that in mind, some people commit suicide from depression which was caused by genetics (Caruso). However, most suicides that occur are rarely from one cause. (Caruso). Multiple undesirable life experiences trigger these cases (Caruso). “This may include; deaths of a loved one, a divorce, separation, break-up, lost custody of children, an illnesses, etc.” (Caruso). Again, the leading cause of depression is untreated depression which is caused by one or more of these life experiences (Caruso). “Suicide only strikes people of a certain gender, race, financial status, age, etc.” (Caruso)? Suicide can strike anyone (Caruso). Statistics taken show that male’s had a 20.5 percent suicide rate while women had a 5.2 percent suicide rate (Flanders 23). This shows both genders commit suicide. Women, despite their low suici...
In the story Laura, the sister of Tom, has a special glass menagerie that she entertains herself with. A glass menagerie is a collection of small, glassed shaped animals, that are usually put on a shelf as decoration. From the title of Williams story, it shows what the one of most important symbol in the play is, Laura’s glass menagerie.
Treatment of suicidal tendencies at any age, involves reducing risk factors for those tendencies. Maris (2010) listed some common single predictors of suicide. Some of the ...
“Suicide and Depression”. All About Depression: Overview. All About Self Help, LLC. 5 June 2010. Web. 30 July 2010.
Very concise description of risk factors for suicide has been offered by Leenaars (1988) and is based on studies of 10 theories of suicide. There are 5 subcategories included under the intr...